IN PRINT

Coffee is the life blood of a photo studio. We creatives crave the magical caffeinated elixir to fuel our mornings, push us through the afternoon slumps, sustain our evening conference calls, and then lighten our eyelids for all night emergency retouching sessions. Alternatively, procrastinate all day and start work at 11pm because, well, creatives. It’s amazing what juices flow when one’s over caffeinated at 4:00am…

With that said, it of course made for a perfect pairing when the fine folk from Cossette approached Shanghoon to create some dark roasted magic for McCafe’s new “Perfect Roast.” Observe:

Here are a few words from the ‘hoon himself:

My first project of 2015 was for McCafe’s Perfect Roast, and I was glad to spot the shot on billboards all over town this weekend. I love coffee. Drink it every day, a few times a day at least. Hope you guys have a chance to try the new McCafe dark roast!

It’s near impossible to discuss Game of Thrones. The immediate response is either a frantic “SHHHH” followed by hands slapping ears to silence potential spoilers, or the friend next to them launching into a vein popping, sputtering rage since the show has mutilated the holy scripture of Mr. Martin. Well, there’s a new show we can discuss. Just swap out the blood sport and incest for power tools and mild asbestos, and you got yourself W Networks new hit show in the making, Game of Homes.

Our very own Chris Gordaneer was tasked with creating some epic home renovation imagery, and the results look a little like this. Well, exactly like this:

In Game of Homes, Host Cameron Mathison guides teams of skilled amateur home renovators as they compete for the chance to trade their skills for the prize of a lifetime. The teams save rundown houses that are marked to be torn down and revive them into dream homes. Each team must redo the houses room by room, as they cope with small budgets, tight deadlines and even tighter living spaces. - W Network

When most people envision a Sunday in late February, they may envision a warm cup of tea, the great indoors and relaxation. It takes a really good reason to turn that vision into a 10.55km run through Peterborough…

This year’s Peterborough YMCA Half a Half Marathon runners are about to lace up and bundle up to raise money for the Balsillie Family YMCA branch in Peterborough. BrandHealth’s own Klint Davies and Dave Snider teamed up with Tyler Gray to create an awesome set of photos depicting what half frozen satisfaction looks like . Check them out!

“Often my favourite layouts are ones that are sketched on a napkin, much like this one, it leaves things relatively open for creative interpretation. Dave’s sketches gave me a good guideline to work with without being too specific, and Klint and Dave were both really open to my vision.”

“Klint and Dave are always chill to work with and going into this we knew it would be a bit of a challenge and would rely heavily on photoshop. Thinking like a retoucher and visualizing how it would ultimately come together I decided to shoot all the ice and dirt in individual pieces and puzzle it all together afterward. The main benefit of doing it this way was the flexibility of being able to move things around as opposed to using heavy makeup on our talent but then having to retouch things out if I didn’t like it completely or if it crossed the centre line. It can be a bit of a “leap of faith” for the client often as they go home at night without ever seeing exactly what we captured. In this case, however everybody was on board and understood that this was the best way to do it. The retouching was a great challenge and totally worth the time spent on it.”

Hockey fans eagerly await the holiday season not only for their friends and family, but to cheer on their fellow countrymen in arguably some of the most entertaining hockey of the year. Every Boxing day the first puck drops for the IIHF World Juniors Tournament, where the best of the best upcoming NHL/KHL super stars take to the ice to bring home the hardware. And they’re all still in high school.

Dave Delnea was hired on by Rethink & Nike to showcase the 100th year anniversary Jersey that the boys are dawning this year. Take a gander:

If you’ve spent any time with Shanghoon, you know that he’s essentially the Korean P.Diddy. So it was really no surprise to me when I heard Traffik Group approached him to pop bottles, strut with models, and make that Vodka sparkle like only Shanghoon can. Behold:

When I first saw the Ciroc layout, I wasn’t sure how the talent and product shots were meant to be handled together – and the project presented an extra challenge for me, because I don’t usually shoot people. But doing a test shot helped me figure out the proper angle and way to manage the talent in the background to get all the elements to fit in the picture. It was a great experience, and it turns out that I do love shooting people! It was also fun to get out of the studio and spend a day in a club – we had a blast.

Thank you to everyone from Westside and Traffik who came out to be in the shot!

What you are about to witness, was created with only still images from Derek Shapton, and post production magic from one incredibly talented Joe Fellows. Observe:

I’ll answer your question before you ask. That gorgeous technique you just witnessed is named the “Parallax Technique,” from Make Productions. Mr. Shapton explains:

“In essence, and without giving too much away, the Parallax method is a way of using various digital transforms, effects, and animations to breathe light, life, and a sense of depth into a series of still photographs.”

For more insight into the day, and to learn more about the Parallax technique, Derek has assembled some words up on his blog. Here’s who had a hand in creating this piece:

#Hoedlized
[hoe-dull-eyes-duh]
Verb
1. To experience a Frank Hoedl set, generally containing a minimum crew of 20, at least 2 cube trucks crammed with gear, bi-tubes rigged higher than any one light stand can handle, and quality espresso. Example: “Oh man, today I had to figure out how to rig a window light 3 stories up during a mild hurricane… totally got Hoedlized!”

The experience of a Frank Hoedl shoot has become that of legend in Toronto photo circles. He and his team work long, hard days (and nights) to bring his images to life. But after one look at the final product, it’s immediately worth the effort. This gorgeous campaign for example, just went live for the 2015 Toyota Camry:

Allow me to introduce one of Westside’s long time producers John Stevancec, to break down Frank’s latest campaign with Toyota!

Once again, Fridays seem to be the day clients call us to make campaigns come to life for them with very tight deadlines. They obviously know we are always up for that challenge here at Westside! Joel Arbez from Saatchi & Saatchi had three very impressive layouts for Frank Hoedl to work on for the new 2015 Toyota Camry. The only issue was they needed to be produced and Shot in 1 week… No problem! We basically scouted over the weekend, Monday was a tech scout with Frank Hoedl, Joel Arbez, Brian Joe (our location scout), and myself. We looked at various locations that day, made some executive decisions, then sent the client some recommendations later that evening. Tuesday we waited for client approvals, but had to start the permit process anyways that morning because it would never have gotten done in time otherwise! We were really happy our client was onboard with the recommends, as they finally approved the locations on Thursday morning! Good thing we took the initiative to start the process right away!

Our first Day was shot in Northern Ontario on some amazing roads, that was fun, but near the end of the shoot Coyotes were getting closer and closer to us, a little too eerie in a dark forest in the middle of nowhere and I’m not kidding!

Day 2 was going to be, quite literally, a day at the beach, but Joel wanted it to look like snow had just started falling and our talent was running towards the lake for a quick dip! No problem, once again! We had dressed the set with fake snow, had snow cannons for falling snow, and our talent was actually quite warm in their swim suits that day. It was about 15 degrees celsius which was quite the surprise for all of us at the end of October! We got lucky with weather once again! (editors note: *Knock wood*.)

Assistant John Wayne Brown keeping tabs on a bi-tube (on a grip arm, in c-stand, in a sky-high), a look back into the set, and an additional angle of the talent on the move.

Day 3 was shot in Kensington Market, as you know it’s a very busy location with so much happening there at any given time, but throwing in a large production stills shoot, hero car on the road, 20 talent, set dressing, lighting, generators, Police officers, Wardrobe stylists, Prop Stylists, 6 Photo Assistants, and interesting shop owners, the day went very smoothly, and that’s why they hired us in the first place!

Frank looking thrilled that his picture is being taken, and a look at setting up shop in the middle of Kensington Market.

Frank did his magic once again as you can see, the final ads are quite beautiful! A big special thanks to our crew who worked endless hours, it was fun!

Photographer Frank Hoedl shares a great tip for location scouting (ask the locals!), and other insights into this campaign:

The very tight timeline turned out to be a great motivator and led to my discovery of the best road I think I’ve ever driven in Ontario. Hwy 13, Southwood Rd, between Hwy 11 and 169 near Bala. While on my way to another potential location, I stopped at a Motorcycle shop and asked the local mechanic which were the best roads for riding. He was right about the road. The beach execution allowed me to discover the beaches on Lake Eerie and drive my 4×4 on the sand. I had the best espresso in Toronto, in recent memory, in Kensington Market at Casa Acoreana Cafe, the corner of Baldwin & Augusta. All my locations from now on will hopefully be within 100 ft of a coffee shop.

Sure the timelines were crazy and yes, we got a car stuck on a beach briefly. Yes, the locations were approved before we got their permission but we got it done! As usual, the team at Westside led by John the producer, performed above and beyond the call of duty. The Toyota job was fun because of the people involved, and the team at Saatchi were great to work with. – Frank

Vicky Lam dusted off her writing chops to give you a first hand look into one of her recent assignments. Take it away Vicky!

I feel like I’ve had my fair share of shooting miniature scenes over the years so I was delighted when the team at MacLaren McCann approached me to work on a unique project for Bayer Crop Sciences. Miniatures are always fun to shoot, exploring the different ways of bringing life to tiny characters. However it’s also because of the miniature size that makes it challenging too. The slightest movements make the biggest differences. Thankfully, I had help from prop builder extraordinaire, Jamie Oxenham to create our tiny construction team and stylist, Christina Yan, to build our landscape of bread.

Here are a few shots from our shoot and how it all came together.

To give a sense of scale, each figure is about 2-3 cm tall and was custom made based off of moulds and altered for body positioning. Each piece was then carefully hand painted!

Our construction site consisted of breads from all over the world. It was carb overload at the end of the shoot day.

Our little figures hard at work:

Stylist Christina Yan, and assistant Christa Guia carefully start slicing down the the baguette tower for the construction workers:

And here is the final ad:

Concepts like this are always fun to shoot, and it is what keeps me excited about studio photography. This shoot was even more of a surprise when I realized that the ad would appear in National Geographic magazine! As a studio, still life photographer, I never imagined any of my work would ever appear in National Geographic magazine. I’ve always thought of National Geographic to be a staple of top notch photojournalism and the best of the best of wildlife photography. Ok, so maybe I didn’t shoot a story for National Geographic, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel just a little giddy at the idea of even appearing in a global publication. And it was all thanks to Bayer and MacLaren McCann for giving me the opportunity to do so. – Vicky

We’re thrilled here at Westside to have Dave Delnea join us full time in Toronto. A few differences from Vancouver: Less mountains, more snow, and a far superior hockey team. But that goes without saying…

Dave recently reunited with a familiar client, and created some new lifestyle work for Lululemon.

Wet, cold and muddy… perfect for a day on location.

We were back at it with the crew from Lululemon last month on the west coast. A change from our past yoga and running shoots, we were able to have some fun scrambling around a few Squamish rock faces in a rain storm.

Most of my talent direction ended with “… and try not to fall off the cliff”! - Dave

I’m pretty sure this sign means that you should try and reach for the giant floating “R” above all cliff edges as a last ditch effort as the ground gives way under you.

It’s a rare full circle moment when the a leading manufacturer rings you up to create ads for the tools you use on a daily basis. This is exactly what happened when Joey L was approached by the fine folk at DentsuBos & Canon, to create the latest print campaign for the legendary L-series lenses. Here’s a look at the final images, layouts, and a few words from Joey.

Retoucher Nick Leadlay’s mobile fortress of solitude.

Working on the Canon L Series photoshoot was a crazy whirlwind that greatly challenged everyone involved. Any advertisement shot on set was going directly to print in less than 10 days, and going to be seen by thousands (potentially millions?) of people. After shooting a setup, we chose our final image selects right then and there with Dentsubos and Canon, and our retoucher Nick Leadlay began the retouching process immediately on set. No time for second thoughts! Nick had built a little computer-fort out of V-Flats and set up shop not too far away from the action so we could walk over to his hideaway and give him notes.The photo team would move on to shooting the next setup, and the process would continue like that over 3 days until all the final advertisements were finished. I might sound crazy, but I actually kind of liked this workflow, because it kept us on our tippytoes and when the job was wrapped, everything was already completed and in the can. Sometimes the retouching process can drag out over months, so it was refreshing to simply be done, dust off your hands, and walk away, and hopefully get some sleep finally.And of course, as the shoot was for Canon L series, those were the only lenses we used for the actual shoot, which is not really a departure from my regular kit. – Joey L

Here’s a look at the final image pairings, with original crops from Joey: